1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to equipment for dispensing bulk fluent solid material into containers. The equipment includes a receptacle for receiving fluent material and three powered augers arranged to dispense the fluent material through three respective chutes. A bag or the like may be suspended from each chute while filling. The novel equipment is mobile, and thus is particularly suited for bagging crops, seed, and fertilizer in agricultural settings, salt or grit for distribution on icy road surfaces, sand for flood control and temporary fortifications such as bunkers, and bulk packaging of toxic or environmentally objectionable materials for disposal.
2. Description of the Prior Art
From time to time, it is necessary or desirable to bag bulk fluent solid materials at a selected site which is not provided with permanently fixed bagging equipment. Examples are sites requiring sand bags, such as flooded areas and sites of military activity requiring protected bunkers or other structures. In other instances, farmers may be required to bag bulk seeds, crops, or fertilizer for transport. Appearance of ice on road surfaces may require localized distribution of salt or gritty substances stored at a distance from the point of need. Contaminated soils may be discovered which must be transported to a disposal facility or site.
In these cases, the need for bagging equipment is not necessarily forseeable or sufficiently predictable for it to be feasible to provide such equipment before the need is realized. Mobile, highly productive equipment is required for transporting to the point of need apparatus for rapidly and continuously bagging granular or otherwise fluent solid and semi-solid materials.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,127, issued to Guy E. Bergeron on Jun. 1, 1993, shows a bag filling device comprising a feed conveyor discharging selectively into any one of plural chutes. This device lacks the augers of the present invention, having a single open conveyor instead. This conveyor feeds only one chute. By contrast, the present invention can fill several bags simultaneously. Bergeron lacks the bag retaining clamps of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,261, issued to Estacia R. Kanzler et al. on May 23, 1995, describes a hopper having plural chutes for filling bags. This device operates by gravity, lacking the motorized plural augers of the present invention. Also, this device is not wheeled, as is the novel equipment. Each chute of the device of Kanzler et al. has a foot pedal operated closure. In the present invention, foot pedal controls perform other functions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,886, issued to Earl W. Emerson et al. on Oct. 15, 1996, describes an auger adapted for mounting in the bucket or shovel of loading equipment. This device has a single auger arranged to discharge through plural spouts or chutes. The present invention has, by contrast, plural, independently controlled augers mounted below a storage hopper. The present invention also has clamps for retaining bags mounted on the chutes.
A bag filling apparatus shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,044, issued to Emmanuel Mechalas on Nov. 12, 1996, operates by vacuum. This device lacks the plural, independently controlled augers and bag clamping apparatus of the present invention.
Mixers share some structure with the present invention. An example is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,223,996, issued to Paul Mathis et al. on Sep. 23, 1980, which describes a motorized auger which discharges a fluent solid from one end of the auger. This invention illustrates a single motorized auger, rather than the selectively operated plural, commonly fed augers of the present invention. Mathis also lacks bag retaining clamps provided in the present invention.
A need remains for a dispensing apparatus which supports and fills a variable number of bags at any one time.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.